About 11,000 Romanian Railways staff will be sacked

Approximately 11,000 staff working for the Romanian Railways (CFR) will be sacked according to the data presented to union members on Wednesday by the Ministry of Transport, Romanian press agency Mediafax informs.

1,400 staff serving CFR Passengers service, between 800 and 1,000 staff working for CFR Infrastructure and 50% of CFR Goods employees – about 8,500 people – will be dismissed, president of the Locomotive Mechanics Federation Iulian Mantescu said, after meeting Transport minister Radu Berceanu, state secretary Constantin Axinia and the directors of the three Railway societies.

The unions will discuss on Thursday with each society individually.

Transport minister Radu Berceanu promised the union members that he will „fight” in the Government to bring more money for CFR’s budget.

Mantescu said that regardless the number of the sacked staff, „nothing will be solved until the Government will not bring money for CFR societies”.

There have been several meetings between the union members and the Transport Ministry representatives before the drastic decision has been taken.

About 7,000 CFR Goods were announced in the beginning of June that they will face three months of technical redundancy.

The work collective contracts for 2009-2010 for CFR Infrastructure, CFR Goods and CFR staff have been signed on June 3.